Messages - Bob Loblaw Esq.

Last year, a strong contender for a Google account-executive position delivered a handwritten thank you to an internal recruiter -- along with cupcakes for the recruiter and five other officials who also interviewed him. One letter of the Google name appeared atop each pastry. His gesture "was just icing on the cake,'' Mr. Geshuri quips. The Internet company hired the candidate.

I sent cupcakes to the firm Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie, Stiffelman, Cook, Johnson, Lande & Wolf. Unfortunately, due to the exceptionally long firm name, the bakery ran out of the carolina-blue icing that I requested; instead the bakery used maroon. Long story short, I did not reveive an offer after the call-back. In the future, I will be sure to pre-screen my bakers in order to avoid embarrassing situations like this.

if I were you, I would DEFINITELY NOT submit my first draft of my first legal memo to a prosepctive employer. Your writing sample needs to be your best well polished writing sample, not your first attempt at a legal memo. trust me (and i am sure that others will chime in) this is not your best bet as a writing sample.

do you have a significant piece of writing from before you entered ls that is nice and polished? that might beyour best bet, and you can explain to the employer that you have just begun legal writing; since you're a 1l, im sure they will understand.

I don't know about your particular T10 school, but Penn, for example (not mine--I'm higher ) has 99% employmement at graduation, meaning at least 9% of the bottom 10% were employed. Who know what those jobs were, or whether the jobs were the students first choice firm or city, but it's employment.

Do you have to be at a top firm? Do you have to be at a firm at all? How about a professor? Look at what you want with your degree. There are, frankly, some jobs that are not available to someone in the bottom 10%. Wachtell, for example. However, if all you want to do is practice law for a firm that you like in a city that you like, why not? BTW, you should really talk to your career services center, as well as your academic advising center. They meet with, oh I'd say 100% or so of the bottom 10% of each class every year. They'll have some advice for you.

If a school has a 99% employment rate at graduation that DOES NOT mean that "at least 9% of the bottom 10% were employed." The 1% that is "unemployed at graduation" might as well be a studnet in the top of the class. In a different situation, your math gives the impression that if a school has an 80% employment rate at grad, the kids in the bottom 20% of the class should be concerned. That is by no means true.

of course you will want to follow the bar assoc. advice, and of course you will want to explain you past actions, what you have learned etc.... And, of course you will want to walk the straight and narrow from now on.

But, from what I have seen, i dont really agree with the above posters that the bar association will conduct an analysis to see if you have changed/reformed, really learned your lesson etc.. While you will need to include that info, basicailly what they are looking for is that you have completely disclosed absolutely everything in your past. Again, I'm not an expert, but from what I know, honestly and disclosure are absolutely the most important aspects of the c&f.

Anyone have a rough guess of what GPA you have to have to be top 10 on a C+ curve?

A 3.5 GPA with a C+ curve (3.33) probably puts you in the top 25% but probably not the top 20%. I'm looking at multiple schools where the curve is C+ right now. It may be different for your school, but if your school is like these others, you're probably top 25%. From a tier 4, that won't be enough to get GULC and certainly not Berkeley. American you may be able to do, however.